


Down Through the Chimney

by aguamala



Category: Stray Kids (Band)
Genre: Aged-Up Character(s), Alcohol, Child Felix, Child Jeongin, Don't copy to another site, M/M, Meet-Cute, Pre-Relationship, anyway, hap crimn, i'm not sure i know what a meet-cute is, if you can count breaking and entering a meet-cute, santa changbin, seung has a glass of wine it's nothing drastic but it is there, seungmin single dad
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-12-24
Updated: 2020-12-24
Packaged: 2021-03-10 20:20:43
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,518
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/28292997
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/aguamala/pseuds/aguamala
Summary: “Who the hell are you?”The man blinks at him.“I’m Santa…?”“You don’t sound too sure about that.”
Relationships: Kim Seungmin/Seo Changbin
Comments: 7
Kudos: 69





	Down Through the Chimney

**Author's Note:**

> Shamelessly inspired by the 2 videos that came across my tl of Seungmin singing “Santa Tell Me.”  
> Merry Crisis, everyone!

The kids are finally in bed and Seungmin can relax a little. He doesn’t want to think about what might be coming tomorrow, so he shuffles the Christmas CDs in the old stereo and pours himself a glass of Malbec. 

He lets his thoughts drift as Carol of the Bells plays. He hums absentmindedly as he runs over schedules in his head, thinking about when he needs the next manuscript back to his client and whether he remembered to sign the form for Felix’s field trip the week after break or if it’s still in the stack of paperwork at the corner of his desk. He resigns himself to checking sometime later, because he can’t be bothered to get up now. 

Carol of the Bells fades out and another song starts up. It’s a silly song, but Seungmin can’t help singing along. 

“Santa tell me if you’re really there. Don’t make me fall in love again if you won’t be here next year.” He takes in a quick breath to start the next line but is interrupted by a footstep in the living room. 

“Aww, you love me?” 

Seungmin shrieks, spilling his wine all over the counter and nearly falling out of his chair. 

“What the f–” Seungmin cuts himself off, casting a split-second glance at the stairway before returning his attention to the intruder and dropping his voice. “Who the hell are you?” 

The man blinks at him. 

“I’m Santa…?” 

“You don’t sound too sure about that.” To be fair, he is wearing an almost perfect Santa outfit: fur-trimmed red robes, black boots, and a floppy, conical hat. Seungmin just isn’t sure Santa usually wears cargo joggers, combat boots, and a belt that shows off a very impressive shoulder-to-waist ratio. Not that Seungmin’s admiring, of course. 

“Usually I don’t have to introduce myself.” 

Something drips onto Seungmin’s thigh. He glances down to see red wine spilling onto his sweatpants. 

“Oh, darn it.” He points to the intruder. “You, stay right there. I have to clean this up and I don’t want you wandering the house while I do it.” 

“You have a very nice voice.” 

Maybe it’s the wine or maybe it’s because he hasn’t sung in front of anyone in months, but Seungmin finds his cheeks warming at the compliment. 

Seungmin tries to keep an eye on the man – he refuses to call him Santa, even in his head – as he soaks the wine up with some paper towels and might end up accidentally checking him out. The man’s stocky, but it’s a muscular build rather than the stereotypical beer belly. He is undeniably handsome; Seungmin turns back to sweeping the paper towels into the garbage before he gets caught staring. 

“So.” The man crosses his arms, but it somehow isn’t intimidating. “I’m Changbin, what’s your name?” 

Seungmin pauses, blinking at him. 

“If you’re Santa, shouldn’t you know that?” 

The man – Changbin – grins sheepishly. 

“I’m sort of just a last-minute gift mailman. I don’t know who anyone is, just that they deserve the gifts in the sleigh.” 

Seungmin puts the wine glass next to the sink with the dinner dishes he thinks might not get done until tomorrow morning and settles back into his chair. 

“How do you know that people deserve the gifts? Is there some sort of application for this that a well-meaning coworker filled out or something?” 

“What? Uh … I don’t think I’m legally allowed to answer that and I’d like to keep my job so let’s ask something else.” 

“This is your job? Is it your only job? Hang on, you’re trying to distract me so I forget that you’ve broken into my house,” Seungmin accuses. 

“I am not! And I have not! Your chimney was wide open.” Changbin is pouting petulantly and it’s not adorable. It most certainly isn’t. It’s so absolutely not adorable that it takes Seungmin a whole five seconds to process his words. 

“My  _ chimney? _ You climbed down my chimney? I haven’t cleaned that in years; there’s no way you’d be this spotless.” 

“I’m just perfect, I guess.” Changbin throws a wink. Seungmin continues staring at him. “Okay fine, I have a method that lets me get in and out of chimneys without getting dirty but on that topic, why didn’t you take up the offer for a free chimney cleaning? The flyer should’ve been sent to you a couple weeks ago.” 

He looks so genuinely confused that Seungmin almost doesn’t have the heart to tell him he’d thought it was a scam. Still, Seungmin thinks he deserves to know so he explains, sheepishly, what happened. 

“Oh, that’s an oversight. We should get that changed. Thank you for letting me know! I’ll take this back to my boss at– uh. At the North Pole. Yup.” 

“So, what’s the deal here, you just go around helping parents out of the goodness of your heart? Out of the goodness of some wealthy unnamed donor’s heart?” 

“Only the parents that need it.” Seungmin narrows his eyes. That answered a very different question. 

“Are you calling me needy?” 

Changbin gives him a flat look. 

“Are you going to deny it?” 

Seungmin opens his mouth to protest but can’t find the words, instead slumping in his seat in defeat. 

“Thought so.” 

Seungmin twists away, corking up the wine bottle. He’s clearly had enough for tonight. 

“That doesn’t mean I trust you.” Yeah, Changbin is ridiculously handsome and is already better company than any of the blind dates Seungmin’s been roped into in the last year but he’s still a stranger who  _ broke into Seungmin’s house.  _ And on Christmas Eve, no less. 

“Want to see my reindeer?” He sounds so earnest. 

“Is that some sort of euphemism?” Seungmin has to check, and it’s worth it for the startled laugh Changbin lets out. 

“What? No. There’s reindeer on your roof right now. I have to go out to grab the presents anyway, wanna come see?” 

“Sure, what the heck. Let me throw some boots on and grab my coat. Stay there.” 

“Wasn’t planning on moving anyway,” Changbin says, gesturing vaguely. 

Seungmin pulls a face at him before abruptly remembering the details of their situation and turning away so Changbin doesn’t see an embarrassed flush settle along his nose and cheekbones. 

“Why don’t you have a jacket? Do you need to borrow one?” Seungmin curses his parent-instilled host instincts. 

“Would you believe me if I said the cold doesn’t bother me?” 

“Alright,” Seungmin groans, heading towards the front door. He’s careful to keep his steps light so he doesn’t wake the boys. “C’mon, Elsa. Let’s go see your reindeer.” 

Changbin follows him out the front door onto the – freshly shoveled despite the seven new inches of snow, thank you Mother Nature – porch. 

Sure enough, when Seungmin turns to look at the peak of his roof, there’s a red sleigh and ten reindeer, none of which should be able to be standing where they are. Seungmin figures this may as well be a dream so he’d rather not question it. 

“Jisung!” Changbin calls, prompting a young man to pop up next to one of the reindeer. 

“Yes boss?” Seungmin watches Changbin roll his eyes fondly. 

“Bring Donder down here, yeah?” 

Jisung – who Seungmin now notes is dressed similarly to Changbin but with a green robe instead of a red one – easily unhitches one of the front reindeer and leads them down the roof, ending with a light leap from the top of the porch. They land right behind Seungmin and Changbin. When Seungmin turns, he finds himself nearly eye-to-eye with the deer. 

“I’ll go grab the presents,” Jisung announces, excusing himself to make an impossible jump back onto the roof. Yeah, this is probably a dream. 

“So, assuming I believe that you actually are Santa, how exactly does this all work?” Curiosity killed the cat, but satisfaction brought it back. Seungmin’s just hoping he won’t wake up to find he’s been in a coma for several years. 

“It’s more or less government-sponsored, but the magic definitely helps.” Changbin pauses, eyes widening. “Oh,  _ shit. _ You’re not allowed to know that. Please don’t tell anyone I told you there’s actual magic involved –  _ fuck _ I’m gonna get fired–”

“Am I allowed to know that the government is involved?” Changbin blinks once and opens his mouth to respond but Seungmin cuts him off, waving a hand dismissively. “You know what, I’m probably dreaming anyway so I’ll just not tell anyone about any of this and you’ll keep your imaginary job and I won’t get questions from Minho-hyung about when I’m going to start therapy up again and we’ll all be fine and dandy, yeah?” 

Changbin blinks at him. 

“I definitely exist so I contest that but the rest of it is … yeah not telling anyone works great let’s do that.” 

Seungmin absentmindedly pets the deer, stroking down their neck. 

“It’s hard. It’s been a hard year. I don’t– I don’t like asking for help and I don’t really like receiving help but I think if this is real, I’m glad you’re here.” 

“Can I ask what happened this year? This is a new house on the route so there wasn’t much in your file.” 

Seungmin decides he doesn’t want to think about the implications of any of that. 

“I have a good job, a job I like, and it’s gotten us through alright up til now. It’s just … Felix broke his arm in August and Jeongin got pneumonia last month and Petal ate some of the kids’ Legos in early October and had to have surgery and–” Changbin takes hold of Seungmin’s hand, tracing soft circles over his knuckles with his thumb “–I could have handled any one of those, or maybe two, with rearranging of finances but all three was just a lot. And I…” Seungmin gestures helplessly before going back to petting Donder. “I got them both a present but every year before now they’ve had at least a couple and I worry about what they’ll think and what their friends might say and I…” 

Changbin reaches over and pulls Seungmin into a careful hug. 

“I don’t want them to think I love them less, or have them think it’s their fault I couldn’t get them presents. I just want to be a good dad.” 

“You are a good dad,” Changbin murmurs. He’s holding Seungmin secure, rubbing gently up and down his back. “You’re an amazing dad and they love you so much.” 

Seungmin sniffles, pulling away. 

“Thanks,” he mutters. 

“Want to help carry presents in?” At some point during their conversation, Jisung left a small pile of neatly wrapped – neatly enough to be up to Seungmin’s standards, which is impressive – presents on the walkway next to them. 

“Sure.” 

They each take an armful and bring everything inside in a single trip. Seungmin, anxious to fill the silence, starts rambling about how reindeer have a specific tendon in their ankle that clicks when they walk, which is where the song about ‘up on the housetop, click, click, click’ comes from. 

Changbin just smiles. 

It’s a very pretty smile. 

“So…” Seungmin pauses, surprisingly reluctant to let Changbin leave. “Did you bring any gifts for me?” 

Changbin grins and snaps his fingers. There’s a little sparkly noise, the kind of thing you’d hear in a Barbie movie, and when Seungmin looks up he sees an elegant sprig of mistletoe right over their heads. 

“Close your eyes.” 

Somehow, impossibly, Seungmin trusts him. 

There’s a moment of silence before soft lips are pressed to Seungmin’s cheek. A murmur of “Merry Christmas” settles soft as fresh snow on Seungmin’s ear. 

When he opens his eyes, though, he’s alone. 

He tenderly touches the spot where he was kissed, unable to stop the smile working its way onto his face. All he’s left with are the gifts and a faint click of reindeer tendons. 

“Dad! Dad! It’s Christmas!” 

It’s 6am. 

“Dad! Dad! Can we open presents?” 

It’s 6am and Seungmin loves his children. He really does. It’s Christmas and it’s 6 in the goddamn morning and Seungmin is going to take a nap this afternoon but the excitement and smiles of a 6- and 7-year-old are infectious. 

“Yes, boys. Let me put on my robe and we can open presents.” 

The excited yells bring a smile to Seungmin’s face. 

He follows the pattering feet downstairs and lets the boys dig under the tree, sorting their presents into piles while he pulls the cinnamon rolls and quiche from the fridge and preheats the oven. 

A thought strikes him. Last night, was it real? 

A cursory glance towards Felix and Jeongin has him reeling a little. They’ve each got a small pile of presents, presents that Seungmin remembers helping carry inside. 

“Go ahead and open your gifts, boys.” 

The excited noises only continue as the boys each open a small collection of toys. Seungmin is somewhat gratified to note that they both choose the present he bought to play with first, but he knows they’ll work their way through all of them by the end of the day. 

The oven dings and Seungmin turns away to put the quiche and rolls in. 

“Dad! Open your gifts!” 

Seungmin settles on the couch between his kids, letting both of them cuddle up to his sides. He only has three presents, as his friend group did their gift exchange before Hyunjin went abroad mid-December and the Secret Santa – wow that name hits different now – at work happened last week. His parents sent a package of chocolates and dried fruits and each of the boys gave him a cute piece of art. Jeongin’s class did pinch pots and Seungmin thinks it’s very cute but isn’t quite sure what he’ll do with it. Felix made him a clay dog – probably? Seungmin thinks it’s a dog – and that will go on the kitchen windowsill next to the toothpicks and the birchbark canoe Minho made last year. 

Job complete and compliments received, the boys take off to play again. Seungmin turns on the radio as the last notes of what sounds like Rocking Around the Christmas Tree fades out and–

“You’ve got to be kidding me.” 

He sings along anyway. 

“Santa tell me if you’re really there…”

In the middle of the first verse, he’s interrupted by a knock on the front door. 

Seungmin somehow isn’t surprised when he opens the door to find Changbin on the other side, dressed in a red sweater and dark green jeans. Seungmin can’t help but laugh at his fashion choices, earning a playful smile in response. 

“So, what brings you here?” Seungmin asks, leaning against the doorframe. Changbin grins, very unsubtly dragging his eyes over Seungmin’s frame. 

“It’s my day off.” 

A yell from inside pulls Seungmin’s attention for a moment, but no cries for help follow so he turns back to Changbin. 

“Well, we’ve got plenty of quiche and cinnamon rolls. Would you care to come in for breakfast?” He holds out a hand to gesture Changbin inside. Changbin takes his hand, turns it over gently, and places a snowflake-soft kiss on his knuckles. 

“I’d love to.” 

**Author's Note:**

> Additionally: Seungmin introduces Changbin as his grindr boyfriend to all his friends, both because it's an easy explanation and also for the shock value.  
> feel free to follow me on twt @/unaaguamala  
> my cc is aguamala  
> I hope you enjoyed!


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